Piping arrangement



Feb. 5, 1935. I c. R. HARDY 1,990,073

PIPING ARRANGEMENT Filed Aug. 14, 1931 INVENTOR. C ha. rl s R Hagdy.

A TTORNEYS.

Patented Feb. 5, 1935 PATENT oral-cs PIPING ARRANGEMENT Charles R. Hardy, Mount Vernon, N. Y., assignor to The Superheater Company, New York, N. Y.

Application August 14, 1931, Serial No. 557,144

4 Claims.

My invention relates to expansion compensating means for piping layouts and has as its principal object to provide an arrangement whereby the thermally produced changes in parts of a 5 piping or conduit layout may be accommodated without setting up undue stresses.

The novel features of my invention are pointed out in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, together with its objects and advantages, will best be understood from a detailed description of a particular piping layout embodying the invention and such a description will now be given with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which-- Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation on a transverse plane through the smoke box of a locomotive boiler having a piping layout in accordance with my invention,

Fig. 2 is an elevation of a portion of the boiler shown in Fig. 1 looking from the right of Fig. 1.

The great majority of present day locomotive engines are provided with superheaters having headers in the smoke box of the locomotive. For operating the auxiliaries, a pipe often is taken off from the header for superheated steam and run back from the smoke box to a distributing chamber, or so-called turret, located in the cab of the locomotive. From the turret the steam is distributed to the auxiliaries such as the air pump and feed water pump or injector. Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate a portion of such an arrangement.

In the drawing, the shell of the locomotive smoke box is indicated by numeral 10. Within the smoke box is a header 12 for superheated steam having the ordinary outlets 14, 14 for steam to be used by the main engine cylinders. An arrangement of the type in question, with the exception of the turret convection, is illus trated more in detail in Patent 1,072,194 to Thomsen. When the engine is not running there is a tendency for the elements of the superheater to become overheated. Partly on this account, it is the standard practice to operate the auxiliaries by superheated steam so that, by operating them when the main engine is still, they can draw steam through the superheater and help to cool its elements at times when it otherwise would be in danger of becoming overheated. For supplying steam to the auxiliaries, there is illustrated in Fig. 1 an offtake 16 at one end of the header 12. The offtake 16 passes through the shell 10 and is connected by an elbow 18 to a curved pipe 20 running downwardly on the outside of the shell and parallel thereto to a point below the central line of the locomotive where it connects by an elbow 22 with a pipe 24 which will be understood as running back to the turret in the cab. Owing to the length of pipe 24, it expands and contracts to a considerable amount when the superheated steam is turned on and off; Unsuccessful efforts have been made to accommodate such expansion by large radius bends and other devices familiar to those skilled in the pipe fitting art, but the limitations of space and other peculiarities of railroad and locomotive practice have rendered them unsatisfactory. It has therefore become a standard practice to place an expansion joint in the line 24, but such joints are comparatively expensive to install and under the conditions of locomotive practice or other conditions met with on locomotives in use, they are difficult to maintain.

It isa-n object of my invention to provide means for accommodating the changes in lengths of pipes such as 24 under operating conditions by means avoiding any extra joint in the piping.

In the arrangement shown, the necessary flexibility for accommodating the variations in length of the pipe 24 is provided by making the pipe 20 of special form. As illustrated, the pipe 20 is non-symmetrical with respect to its central longitudinal axis having, instead of the usual circular section, a flattened section throughout most of its length. By decreasing the diameter of the pipe 20 in the direction parallel to the axis of the locomotive boiler and of the pipe 24, its rigidity in the direction parallel to the pipe 24 is much reduced and it can therefore flex to permit expansion and contraction of the pipe 24. The narrowing or flattening of the pipe 20 in the direction parallel to the boiler shell 10 and pipe 24 is clearly illustrated in Fig. 2. In order to provide suflicient area within the pipe 20 for free flow of steam therethrough, its dimension in the plane perpendicular to the shell 10 and pipe 24 is considerably enlarged as appears clearly in Fig. 1. The end portions 21 of pipe length 20, however, are preferably of the ordinary cylindrical form, as appears clearly in Figs. 1 and 2, so that pipe 20 can be threaded to fittings at its ends in the usual manner.

While I have described my improvement as applied to a locomotive, it will be understood that, while of particular utility in locomotives, it may be applied in many arrangements not connected with locomotives.

What I claim is:

1. A piping arrangement having two connected conduit portions arranged to form an angle which is freely movable, one of said portions having a part in which the cross section has a restricted dimension in the direction parallel to said other portion and has also a curve in the plane perpendicular to said other portion, said portion having the restricted dimension having also an enlarged dimension in the direction substantially parallel to said plane.

2. The combination with a cylindrical shell, of a conduit extending therethrough, said conduit having a portion whose center line lies in a plane substantially at right angles to the axis of said shell and having a portion substantially at right angles to said first portion and forming therewith an angle which is freely movable, said first portion having a part in which the cross-section has a restricted dimension in the direction parallel to said second portion to provide flexibility and an enlarged dimension at right angles to said second portion to permit free flow of fluid.

3. The pipe arrangement having two connected conduit portions arranged to form an angle which is freely movable, one of said portions lying substantially in a vertical plane and having a. fixed support at its upper end, the lower end of said one portion being unsupported and forming the vertex of said angle and said other portion extending substantially horizontal, said one portion having a restricted dimension in the direc" tion parallel to said other portion to promote flexibility and having an enlarged dimension in the direction perpendicular to said other portion to provide capacity for flow.

4. A piping arrangement having two connected conduit portions arranged to form an angle which is freely movable, one of said portions lying substantially in a vertical plane and having a fixed support at its upper end, said one portion being curved in said plane and its lower end portion being unsupported and forming the vertex of said angle, and said other portion extending substantially horizontal from said angle, said one portion being of a restricted dimension in a direction parallel to said other portion to promote flexibility and having an enlarged dimension in a direction perpendicular to said other portion to provide capacity for flow.

CHARLES R. HARDY. 

